Has the Higgs boson finally been detected? It's almost gotten to the point that if a discovery of some sort doesn't come out of next week's update on the multibillion-dollar subatomic search, it'll be a big surprise. But how far will the announcement go, and what will it mean for the future of physics?

To refresh your memory, the Higgs boson is the only fundamental subatomic particle predicted by theory but not yet detected. It's thought to play a role in endowing some particles, such as the W and Z boson, with mass ... while leaving other particles, such as the photon, massless. The Higgs mechanism, proposed by British physicist Peter Higgs and others in the 1960s, could have played a role in electroweak symmetry breaking, which was a key event in the rise of the universe as we know it.

I learned about it on The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon was playing Pictionary and could not understand why Penny didn’t guess it from his drawings. When she looked to Leanard for some sanity he said, “It’s all there.”

2
posted on 06/30/2012 5:43:39 AM PDT
by Mercat
(Necessity is the argument of tyrants. John Milton)

Thanks John W. The Higgs won't be found per se -- but to save the Standard Model whatever winds up getting discovered instead will be called by the name. The SM altered in order to make this predicted piece -- which isn't actually the predicted piece -- fit better. Same thing happened to the the solar neutrinos when, after decades of nothing, something else was found with different characteristics, and an egregiously ad hoc explanation was cooked up.

Quantum teleportation has already been accomplished (instantaneous communication) in lab settings across a 100+ mile distance.

The implications for use in space communications are enormous. After all, even the moon is some 1.3 light seconds away which isn't a huge distance but beyond that, instant communication would be a big leap. Gotta figure, the mars rovers move a few feet at a time for a reason. Instant communications would radically change the way even our robotic missions are conducted. Such instant communications may have saved many of the lost mars missions.

The New Horizons craft is a touch over 3 hours and 7 light minutes out (one way)

13
posted on 06/30/2012 8:00:36 AM PDT
by cripplecreek
(What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)

Quantum entanglement can instantaneously transmit quantum information, namely the quantum states of the entangled particles, but it can’t instantaneously transmit classical information. So, in these experiments, there has to be an conventional channel for transmitting additional bits of classical information at subluminal speeds, in order to complete the teleportation process. This is probably just another example of “science writers” not really understanding science.

No, because the quantum information that is transmitted is has a built in degree of uncertainty. Performing an action on the entangled particle on one end will result in a somewhat random resulting change in the particle on the other end. Without the additional transmittal of classical information, you can’t know exactly what operation was performed on the other end.

So, essentially, quantum teleportation does not increase the speed of information transmittal at all. What it really does is allow you to tranmit a much larger amount of information at the same normal subluminal speed that you use to transmit the classical information. The quantum portion of the information is transmitted instantaneously, but until you get the classical information transmitted conventionally, it’s useless to you. Once you get the classical information, as small as 2 bits of information, then the entire transmittal, of classical + quantum information can be completed.

No problem, sorry to rain on the faster than light parade. I wish it were true too, but the quantum stuff just doesn’t seem to be the answer.

So far, the best evidence for supraluminal velocities I have seen seems to be in plasma jets associated with quasars. Some of these jets appear to move up to nearly ten times the speed of light! The problem is, that’s only the apparent motion, and there could be many different reasons why the real motion is not that fast. For example, quasars could be much closer than we think they are, leading us to overestimate the distance travelled by the matter in the jets, and overestimate the velocity.

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